Typeface Design for Excellent

A forgotten typewriter face revived decades after Linotype dropped it

Excellent is a digital type family designed by Stephan Müller, released by Lineto in 2008, based on a single-weight typewriter font originally commissioned by Triumph-Adler and drawn by Lothar Kloth and Willy Deege at the Stempel type foundry in spring 1983. The design references stylistic details of Aldo Novarese's Eurostile (1962) while remaining a distinct original work. Linotype published a single-weight phototype version in 1984, but the typeface never transitioned to PostScript and was dropped from their catalogue. Müller's revival adds a bold weight and italic cuts not present in any prior release. Font engineering and mastering was handled by Alphabet, Berlin.

Set in Excellent

Insights

The original typeface was drawn at Stempel's design studio in 1983 for Triumph-Adler's daisy wheel typewriters and printers, and existed only as a single weight throughout its pre-digital life.
Linotype published a phototype version in 1984 but never converted it to PostScript, after which it was dropped from the Linotype catalogue.
Müller's digitisation introduced bold and italic cuts absent from all prior releases.
Font engineering and mastering was handled by Alphabet, Berlin, separate from Müller's design authorship.